How to Make Emergency Lighting Glow Sticks with Mountain Dew

Whether during a winter storm or a climbing expedition, it is always good to have an emergency lighting source available. There is nothing scarier than being caught in the middle of a black out and finding your flash light does not work as your knock your shins on the furniture or trip over the dog. Simple emergency lighting similar to glow sticks, can be made quickly and easily from three common products found on grocery shelves and easily stored for long periods of time in your pantry. As an aside, I am not sure why this emergency lighting works only with Mountain Dew soda, but these glow sticks made are very effective and worth remembering in a black out.

• Open a small bottle of Mountain Dew soda and pour equal parts into several empty small soda or water bottles to start setting up emergency lighting glow sticks. There should be approximately ¼ to ½ inches of soda in each bottle. This is the equivalent of about one ounce of soda.
• Mix with the soda, three capfuls of common hydrogen peroxide found in pharmacies and on grocery store shelves. Mix this amount with soda in each of the bottles to which you have previously added the soda.
• Add to each emergency lighting bottle, a pinch of baking soda. A pinch is approximately 1/8 to ¼ teaspoon.
• Cover bottles with a cap and shake well. Voila! The chemical reaction formed by mixing the three ingredients will create a nice glow and turn your soda bottles into emergency lighting that will scare away the demons during the black out.

Tips

This recipe is for small sized soda bottles. If using the large bottles, experiment with the amount of ingredients necessary to emit enough emergency lighting that will be helpful.

Keep empty soda bottles in a box in your garage or basement so you have plenty for emergency lighting when the need arises.

Warning

Do not let young children make this mixture and be sure no one drinks it. Although none of these ingredients or emergency lighting are dangerous by themselves, the mixture is not meant for internal consumption.

What you need

• Small bottles of Mountain Dew Soda
• Small empty soda bottles
• Hydrogen peroxide
• Baking soda
• Measuring spoons

Have you tried this cool experiment? Please let me know your results.